Hi You can indeed get a pick and place for under a thousand dollars. I wold not use one of them, but they do exist. It all depends on how much of an “advantage” you want over a hand place approach. A half way decent screen printer will run $500. Some sort of reflow setup will be a couple hundred. You can go cheap on the printer and get it down to $100 or so. A rebuilt toaster oven will run $20 or less. It all is a matter of how much hassle / how tight pitch you want to deal with.
Bob > On Jun 23, 2016, at 6:38 PM, Bob Stewart <b...@evoria.net> wrote: > > Thanks Bob et al, > > This is about what I expected, but I had to ask. I wonder how long it'll > take for that several thousand bucks for a pick-n-place machine to become a > couple hundred? That would be the final hurdle for the tiny electronics > business. > > Anyway, I've had my say and we can let this die. Thanks for the responses! > > Bob > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > GFS GPSDO list: > groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GFS-GPSDOs/info > > -------------------------------------------- > On Thu, 6/23/16, Bob Camp <kb...@n1k.org> wrote: > > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] OT stuffing boards: was GPS interface/prototyping > board > To: "Bob Stewart" <b...@evoria.net>, "Discussion of precise time and > frequency measurement" <time-nuts@febo.com> > Date: Thursday, June 23, 2016, 5:27 PM > > Hi > > Around here, assuming: > > 1) You supply all the parts on full reels with > leaders > 2) There is no hand assembly > work > 3) You already have framed stencils > that are the correct size for their gear > 4) > You have multiple proper solder and placement fiducials on > both sides > 5) The boards are designed to > mount on their gear > 6) Your parts and design > rules fit their gear and rules. > 7) No > electrical test, visual inspect only. > 8) > Best effort only, If the part does not solder etc, you > replace it on your time. > > You can get various places to look at a batch > for $500 to $1000. If your stencils != > their > stencils figure $100 to $200 each. > > If you want to ship things a ways, you can save > a bit of money. Shipping plus packing > always seems to be a bit expensive. > > By far the best approach is to > get all of their rules before you start a board layout. > Then > do it in whatever arrays / panel size > they are set up for and all the other little details. > > This all starts to make a lot > more sense to the local outfits when you are talking a few > hundred boards. > Even more so if it is a few > hundred boards a month, every month for a few years. > > ==== > > Some math: > > 120 > parts on 10 boards is 1200 parts. A good machine will do > that in < 6 minutes. Setting up the machine, > loading and unloading the machine, pulling > boards on and off the machine, programming the whole thing, > > validating everything ….. that’s an > afternoon’s worth of work (maybe more) and maybe an hour > of down time > on the machine. > > ==== > > Of course for a few thousand dollars you can > buy your own pick and place machine …. > > Bob > > >> On Jun 23, 2016, at 3:28 PM, Bob Stewart > <b...@evoria.net> > wrote: >> >> One more > related question before this topic dies, if you don't > mind. What about the other side of building: stuffing the > boards. My GPSDOs have about 120 parts per board, plus > some custom work on the SMA connectors. Is there a service > out there that will populate boards with SMT components for > small orders at a reasonable price? Small is 10 boards. >> >> Bob - AE6RV >> >> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> GFS GPSDO list: >> > groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GFS-GPSDOs/info >> >> > -------------------------------------------- >> On Wed, 6/22/16, Clint Jay <cjaysh...@gmail.com> > wrote: >> >> Subject: > Re: [time-nuts] RS232 / GPS interface/prototyping board >> To: "Discussion of precise time and > frequency measurement" <time-nuts@febo.com>, > "Nick Sayer" <nsa...@kfu.com> >> Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2016, 6:06 PM >> >> Life is so much > easier >> now, dirtypcb is a great > service, I have a pile of >> boards here > from them which are far greater >> quality > than anything I could >> hope to >> produce at home or even in the lab I used > to have. >> They're also >> better quality than any of >> the local board houses I used in the > past. >> >> Having said > that, I did hand >> manufacture fifty > single sided boards from >> photo laminate > to completed product in one >> weekend > using a Dremel drill >> press for >> somewhere around four thousand holes and > hand soldering >> every >> component so it was definitely >> possible >> On 23 Jun > 2016 00:01, "Nick >> Sayer via > time-nuts" <time-nuts@febo.com> >> wrote: >> > _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com >> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >> and follow the instructions there. > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
